26 dead after a 5.6 earthquake struck Western Afghanistan where victims died when roofs of their residential houses collapsed.
The earthquake struck western Afghanistan in the western province of Badghis, Qadis district governor Mohammad Saleh Purdel said.
5.6 earthquake hit Afghanistan’s western province of Badghis on Monday, a local official has said. “The worst-hit areas were Badruk, Darband-e-Safed and Khak Polak localities in Qadis district, east of the provincial capital Qala-e-Naw,” Xinhua news agency quoted district chief Mohammad Saleh Purdil. Multiple houses were affected by the quake which occurred at 4:10 p.m., and the number of casualties may rise, the source said. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 jolted 40 km east of Qala-e-Naw, the provincial capital of Badghis which borders Turkmenistan.
The country is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates and in Herat, Afghanistan at least 26 people were killed after an earthquake hit western Afghanistan on Monday, an official said with a magnitude of 5.3, according to the US Geological Survey.
“Five women and four children are among the 26 people killed in the earthquake,” said Sarwary, adding that four more were injured.
The quake also inflicted damage on the residents of Muqr district in the province but details including of casualties were still unavailable, said district governor Mohammad Saleh Purdel said.
Times are tough for Afghanistan already in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, poverty, civil rights removed, food shortage, leading to some parents selling kidneys or even their children and all this is aggravated by the Taliban takeover of the country in August when Western countries froze international aid and access to assets held abroad.
Qadis is one of the areas worst affected by a devastating drought, benefiting little from international aid in the past 20 years.
Earthquakes can cause significant damage to poorly built homes and buildings in impoverished Afghanistan.
In 2015, nearly 280 people were killed when a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake centered in the mountain range ripped across South Asia, with the bulk of the deaths in Pakistan, and during this disaster, 12 young Afghan girls were crushed to death in a stampede as they tried to flee their shaking school building.